


Kitty

by Tanist



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:34:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25669021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tanist/pseuds/Tanist
Summary: Story based on a prompt in the SSSS Scriptorium: what if Kitty were a human child?
Relationships: Human Kitty And the team
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

KITTY

Mikkel, like the others, had taken to calling the catgirl Kitty. Each of them called her so in their own language. His understanding was that she had been at least partly raised by the mother cat, among the previous and current litters of kittens, and certainly her attempts to suckle from Tuuri, Sigrun and himself would suggest that that was likely.

However, she could also, as he discovered, catch and eat her own mice, rats, voles and the occasional rabbit. The first time he had seen her do this, stalking and catching a vole through the long grasses of a riverbank where they were resupplying their water reservoirs, he had felt somewhere between appalled and delighted - appalled that any human child should be reduced to such exigencies of survival, yet delighted because now he knew that if the rest of them were to die on this insane expedition, Kitty might still have a chance at surviving without them. 

A few days later she decided that she needed to teach Mikkel how to hunt. When she presented him with a large, still struggling, unRashed rat, released it in front of him and gestured in a way that suggested that she wanted him to catch it, he was startled, then when he realised her meaning, leaped on the rat and crushed its head with his heavy boot. She patted him on the head and gave him an approving purr, but then hissed again when he began to skin and gut the animal. 

When he was done with the task he laid the carcass on the hot stones by the fire to cook, being unwilling to eat raw rat even for Kitty. As it cooked she circled the fire, sniffing at the cooking meat with fascinated interest, then when Mikkel took it from the fire and tore it roughly in half, handing her the larger piece, she settled by his side and ate it with every appearance of pleasure. He was relieved. If she could be persuaded that cooking meat was worth the trouble, many nasty zoonoses might be avoided. He was sure that she already carried the load of parasites common for all wild predators, and he had every intention of fixing that problem as soon as possible.


	2. Kitty Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikkel continues to work on taming Kitty and restoring her to health.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the substances mentioned here have been used or are still being used as vermifuges in the North of the world.

Kitty Chapter 2

Once Kitty’s other problems such as dirt, lice and fleas, various minor wounds and the filthy matted mess of her hair had been dealt with, and she had been persuaded that wearing clothes was a Good Thing, Mikkel decided that now was a suitable time for dealing with her parasite burden. But what to use? There was nothing in his medical kit that would serve, though he knew that chemical vermifuges were available back in the Known World. He thought back to what the village herbalist had used when he was a boy back on the family farm on Bornholm. One such remedy suitable for children was made from crushed pumpkin seeds mixed with cream, taken for three successive mornings an hour before food, followed by a mild purgative on the third day. But he had seen no pumpkins in the overgrown remains of such farms and vegetable gardens as they had found. 

Garlic would help, he thought, and the wild garlic that Lalli sometimes found on his foraging trips would be useful in the long term, but he needed something stronger for immediate use. He had already found wild thyme and yarrow, herbs which he knew from his farm life. Mikkel wished he had been able to find male fern, although he knew it could be poisonous in large doses, but he had seen no sign of the arching fronds. At least he had some walnut husks from wild trees; even with most of the nuts collected by squirrels, the medicinal part used in this case was the papery membrane around the fruit, and the green inner layer of the shell. When Sigrun suggested a folk remedy from her own childhood, roasted apple mixed with the child’s own finely snipped hair, it was all he could do not to gag in disgust. What an idea! But that did remind Mikkel of a traditional treatment he had read of in several very old medical books: arctic wormwood. 

But though both he and Lalli searched for the plant in likely places Mikkel found no sign of it. Mikkel was annoyed, but finally settled on using the one closely related plant that they could find: mugwort. That was common in Denmark, both as a wild and cultivated plant. Lalli knew it better as a herb used in protective magic, but was also familiar with it as a treatment for intestinal parasites. When after another fruitless search for wormwood he presented Mikkel with a large bunch of mugwort just coming into bud, Mikkel took his meaning and decided that this substitute was worth a try. But perhaps there were things he could add from his meagre cooking supplies. While it frustrated Mikkel to use so much of his few remaining culinary herbs and spices, he thought it well worth while if it would protect Kitty. He was after all, quite fond of the child. 

So Mikkel searched through his meagre cooking supplies. When he left Denmark he had carried with him a few precious greenhouse-grown spices, knowing what a difference it could make to morale to have an occasional food treat in the wastes of the Silent World, and trusting that the expedition could yield enough profit that he might easily replace them. So he added to his mixture several of the spices now only available at high prices from the greenhouses of Iceland: dried clove buds, cinnamon bark and dried ginger root. He hoped that Kitty could be persuaded to swallow his mixture, despite the strong and jarringly different flavours.


End file.
